The Dump

I got to go on a work field trip yesterday to: The Dump! Our office manager, who apparently has wanted to do this for a long time, had to book this many months in advance to secure our spot and yesterday was the lucky day.

The first thing they told us when we got there was: don't call this a dump. It is not a dump.

What it is is a transfer station - a place where things are separated, sorted, re-combined and redirected.

Here you can see the place where everything that is going to the landfill spends a little quality time. This was by far the stinkiest place we visited on the tour (but we didn't get to go to the compost facility, which may have been a contender).

While at the transfer station we also got to see a short video about how the different facilities work and visit the Artist in Residence Studio, where we met one of the Artists in Residence. Here are some examples of things that have come out of that program in the past:

It all feels a little circusy, doesn't it? Not sure if the previous artists in residence have all been carnies or what.

We then headed over to tour the MRF (pronounced "murph") across town at their Pier 96 location. They don't allow photos at that location so I'll have to just describe it for you: imagine an several Escher drawings overlaid one on the other but instead of staircases they are all conveyor belts full of recyclable materials. I'm getting dizzy just remembering it.